A couple of quotes from Lithwick’s column:

The United States, with 5 percent of the world’s population, houses nearly 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. As Webb has explained it, “Either we’re the most evil people on earth, or we’re doing something wrong.”

…

Webb also reminds us that while drug use varies little by ethnic group in the United States, African-Americans—estimated at 14 percent of regular drug users—make up 56 percent of those in state prison for drug crimes.

Good column, worth reading. Key an eye on Webb’s initiative.

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Some high-ranking members of the nation’s intelligence services lobbied Obama not to release the memos, or to do so in heavily redacted form. Obama released the memos almost entirely unredacted, but promised that CIA personnel who had in good faith relied on the executive branch Office of Legal Council’s advice that the techniques were legal, would not be prosecuted. This is widely regarded not to rule out prosecution of those who authorized and ordered the use of the techniques. 

The recently leaked International Committee of the Red Cross torture report (complied by cross-confirmation of prisoner interviews, and portrayed by some critics as prisoners’ tall tales) was confirmed nearly line for line by the Bush OLC memos.

The four memos are available for download (pdf) here.

Many reactions from political and legal commentators on the left and right are collected by The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan, here (pt 1) (pt 2) (pt 3):

The redaction (blacking-out) of the memos, where present, is sometimes poorly executed. As I read over the memos last night, i noticed several instances of a year being blacked out, followed immediately by the year being visible in a reference to the same document.

Dafna Linzer at ProPublica spotted a more significant error (or intentional slip?) in the redactions, where the name of ‘ghost detainee’ Hassan Ghul, was inadvertently left visible. Ghul’s whereabouts are unknown since 2004. He was not transferred to Guantanamo Bay with 14 “high value” detainees in 2007 as expected by humanitarian groups.

Read Linzer’s article here.

Clearly, this is a huge legal event, and a political firestorm in the making.

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Biggest legal news is the California Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision allowing gay marriage on equal protection grounds (172 pg. opinion). Called “revolutionary,” this was a double ”first” - the first time a court used “strict scrutiny” to examine a law aimed at gays (an earlier Massachusetts decision had used only a “rational basis” test, but ruled for gay marriage anyway) AND the first time sexual orientation has been deemed a “suspect classification” like race and gender. Much was made of the fact that six of the seven judges were Republican appointees, three of whom voted in the majority. Conservative groups promised a November referendum for a constitutional amendment to overthrow the decision (raising the fun legal thicket of a potentially unconstitutional constitutional amendment) but Gov. Schwarzenegger said he’d oppose the referendum. Lots of analysis here.

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In a story I discussed here, the feds have stepped in to prosecute Lori Drew in the MySpace Hoax Suicide. Missouri authorities had determined that Drew had broken no Missouri laws and declined to prosecute, but the feds will try to use a law primarily directed toward computer hacking. From the AP story:

The indictment alleges one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl [Megan Meier], who hanged herself.

U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.

“This was a tragedy that did not have to happen,” O’Brien said at a Los Angeles press conference.

Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.

Rebecca Lonergan, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Southern California, said use of the federal cyber crime statute may be open to challenge.

Lonergan, who used the statute in the past to file charges in computer hacking and trademark theft cases, said the crimes covered by the law involve obtaining information from a computer, not sending messages out to harass someone.

“Here it is the flow of information away from the computer,” she said. “It’s a very creative, aggressive use of the statute. But they may have a legally tough time meeting the elements.”

Will try to follow this and report.

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Finally, eBay vs. craigslist is underway in California state court. With facts and personal animosity reminiscent of the Papa Johns vs. Pizza Hut classic, this should be fun to watch.

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/21/jensen.verdict/index.html

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/19/jensen.trial.ap/index.html

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Update from the source that originally broke this story. The prosecuting attorney will not bring charges. (original story, a must-read if you have interest in this case)

The family of the deceased girl has stated they do not intend to sue the perpetrators of the hoax.  That is somewhat surprising under the circumstances.

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You may’ve heard about this, but the details are beyond shocking.

If this deeply malicious behavior toward a minor by a 47 year-old is not in fact a crime, then it should be criminalized.

That an adult would plot such a cruel hoax against a 13-year-old girl has drawn outraged phone calls, e-mail messages and blog posts from around the world. Many people expressed anger because St. Charles County officials did not charge Ms. Drew with a crime.

But a St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Lt. Craig McGuire, said that what Ms. Drew did “might’ve been rude, it might’ve been immature, but it wasn’t illegal.”

…

St. Charles County’s prosecuting attorney, Jack Banas, said he was reviewing the case to determine whether anyone could be charged with a crime. 

Is there at least an actionable civil tort here? Wrongful death? The minor’s suicide complicates that. Intentional infliction of emotional distress? Surely.

I feel so bad for the mother and father. I feel almost equally bad for the daughter and husband of the woman who conducted the hoax. Their quality of life and emotional well-being will be forever changed for the worse by the consequences of this woman’s immature, inhuman cruelty. 

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Odyssey Marine v. Spain update:

A report in El País newspaper has revealed that the 500,000 coins which the Odyssey Marine Exploration company found off the coast of the Algarve last April and May are Spanish coinage. …

The revelation was made by the company itself when if [sic] completed customs forms in Gibraltar on April 10 and May 16, the dates that they took their haul out of the colony and back to their base in Florida. …

The fact that the Odyssey company has admitted the coinage found is Spanish, does not, the company claims, mean it was found on a Spanish ship. On that point they insist that they still have not been able to establish the nationality of the vessel, a point key as to which nation or nations might later claim part of the treasure. (emphasis mine – the nationality of the ship is crucial to Spain’s claim to ownership) …

One theory is that the ship concerned is the ‘Nuestra Señora de la Mercedes’ which sunk in 1804 in the battle of Cape Santa María during an attack from British ships, although this has been dismissed by the Odyssey director Gerg Stemm.

He told the EFE news agency that his company invited the Spanish Ministry of Culture to take part in his expedition last year. ‘At first’, he said, ‘they did not show any interest, now they do. They have tried to force us to give information which we consider could put the site where we found the treasure in danger’.

Louis “Outraged Octogenarian” Montgomery update:

The 81-year-old man accused of hitting a Sheriff’s deputy over the head with a paint roller is suing the county and the deputy involved in the case.
Louis Montgomery has filed a claim for personal injuries he says he sustained as a result of excessive use of force. Montgomery also claims his arrest in March was illegal.

He says the arrest by Deputy Steven Williams was not made with a warrant or based on probable cause. The claim was filed with the County on Sept. 4. According to the Sheriff’s Department, Montgomery became violent with Deputy Williams after Williams asked Montgomery to stop painting a neighbor’s fence.*

Montgomery claims he didn’t hit the deputy with the paint roller, it fell on his head. The 81-year-old man faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

If you haven’t been keeping up, let me point out the crucial point that Montgomery was painting his own fence, NOT his neighbor’s as reported in the article. Montgomery had build a concrete block fence under a court order related to his neighbor’s irritation with Montgomery’s mini pig farm. To annoy his neighbor, Montgomery was perched upon his wall painting the side facing the neighbor in the tradition of tasty, but unlovely Neapolitan ice cream. It is debatable as to whether this otherwise legal activity represented a breach of the peace in which the responding deputy could lawfully interfere, or whether it was merely a “so sue me” nuisance properly dealt by filing suit.

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I am coming around to the understanding that the subject wall is actually on/at/near the property line, but of course this becomes a very precise concept and requires a survey at some point. It was built by Montgomery, under a court order related to his pigs, and when you build a fence it is supposed to be on your side of the property line (if only barely). If it was entirely on his land, then it still seems “it was his to paint” – though that would explain why he actually seems to have sat or stood atop the wall to paint it (so as not to trespass on the other side).

I’m not sure how that’s a police matter assuming no breach of the peace. If the neighbor has a problem with it, go to court. If the neighbor was instigating a breach of the peace, it should’ve been the neighbor being warned off by the deputy. Until I learn different, I’ll continue to feel this way.

The next hearing in the case is on June 18.

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